Weiner: ObamaCare “dead” if Brown wins

posted at 10:12 am on January 19, 2010 by Ed Morrissey

Republicans have argued that a Scott Brown victory today would stop ObamaCare in its tracks. Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi insist that it won’t. On today’s “Morning Joe,” Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) agreed with Republicans, saying that he would have a “difficult time” voting for what he sees as an inferior Senate bill:

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) is the latest pessimist on the Democratic side of the aisle, saying health care may be “dead” if Republican Scott Brown wins the Massachusetts Senate race.

“I think you can make a pretty good argument that health care might be dead,” Weiner said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Weiner, one of the House’s more progressive members, said “it’s going to be very hard” to ask members of the House to vote for the Senate bill – what some believe would be a likely scenario if Democrats lose the Massachusetts Senate seat. …

“I’d have a very difficult time doing that,” Weiner said about voting “yes” to the Senate’s bill.

Weiner is an advocate for a single-payer system, and has argued for “Medicare for all” as a solution to health-care reform. His “difficulties” stem from the stripping of the Trojan-horse public option in the Senate and the Cadillac tax that penalizes union benefits along with so-called “fat-cat” packages. He, along with his progressive allies, want significant changes in the ObamaCare bill that they’re no longer likely to see, or to call a halt to the whole enterprise.

Of course, other Democrats are likely to take other lessons from the debacle in Massachusetts, which we’ll cover later.